Price : Too low to display
Sleek and easy installation Watch any Tivo DVR from any TVPause a program in one room and continue watching it in another roomPlay a DVD on all TVs in the house simultaneouslyHooks up an iPod whole home music systemXtender remote wirelessly communicates with Tivo DVR from any roomIncludes remote control
This review is from : BOCS Xtender Whole-Home Entertainment System
I can finally find time to watch my shows . I have lots of DVDs but not enough time to watch them. That is, not enough time to sit at one location to watch all of them. I can rip the shows onto my IPod Touch and take them with me wherever I go. This works well when I'm traveling but not ideal when I'm at home. The 3.5 inch screen and tiny speaker of the IPod is just too difficult to enjoy if I am doing work at the home office, cooking dinner in the kitchen, folding laundry, doing work in the garage workshop or in the bedroom before I go to bed in the evening. So, I have been taking the DVDs with me to play back at different parts of the house. The inconvenient part is I need to remember to bring the DVDs with me as I move around the house but also to find the spot on the show where I had left off when I pop the DVD into another player.
I came across the BOCS Xtender while surfing on the web. The interesting thing that caught my attention was I don't need to run new wires all over the house nor have to mess with setting up a wireless video distribution network. The ability of the Xtender to use the existing antenna cable network already inside my walls and the ability to use each TV's built-in tuner without requiring an additional set-top decoder box for each TV location sounded really promising.
The Xtender arrived about 2 weeks ago. Installation initially appeared challenging but the quick-start guide made the process manageable. I had some problems initially in locating the central distribution of the antenna cable network but a call into the support number helped me locate it. I was glad the rep on the phone was very knowledgeable, courteous and spoke English that I can understand easily!
The unit retails for $500 but I got mine for significantly less searching around the web. Housing for the unit is a sturdy cast metal enclosure about the size of a hardcover novel. One way to describe how the unit works is to think of it as having 3 miniaturized TV broadcast stations. Each one of these broadcast stations will take any composite audio/video signals (typically these are the yellow for video and red/white for audio connectors located in the back of DVD players, DVR, VCR, camcorder, etc.) and broadcast these contents all over the in-house antenna cable network without interfering with the normal cable TV or over-the-air TV receptions. Quality of the video signal is quite good and is comparable to other over-the-air channels coming from my rooftop antenna.
The Xtender broadcast is based on the NTSC analog standard instead of the ATSC digital standard. This actually worked towards my favor since I still have a few older TVs with only analog tuners. The one in the kitchen is the type that mounts underneath the kitchen cabinet with a flip down screen. There is really no room in the kitchen counter to add a digital tuner box. I hooked up my Channel Master CM-7000 digital tuner to the blue channel of the Xtender and now I have access to digital channels with my all of my older TVs. Which means I don't need to get a separate digital tuner for each TV!
Each of the mini broadcast stations are color coded. For example, you can hook up your DVD player to the red channel with the supplied set of red A/V cables. If you are in front of your bedroom TV, pressing the red channel button on the remote will automatically tune your bedroom TV to the channel assigned for the DVD player and simultaneously send an RF signal to the Xtender in the other room telling it that subsequent button pushes such as play, stop, ff, rew, etc. will access the DVD player connected to the red channel. Same thing applies for the green and blue channel so the remote can control three additional devices besides your TV. The unit is really easy to use and not much different from using a standard TV remote. With the Xtender, you are getting 3 additional TV channels (red is channel 14, blue is 96 and green is 98)with whatever audio and video contents you wish to put on them as long as the sources comply to the composite a/v standard.
Everyone in the family including the kids have been delighted with the Xtender. I am using a single-disc DVD player hooked up to the red channel but I am seriously considering getting a 300 discs player and load up a good part of my DVD library in order to have instant access to any one of the 300 DVDs in the player anywhere there's a TV in the house. We no longer need to argue about what to play on the big screen TV in the family room. The kids can go to another room and access the cartoons recorded on the family room DVR while my wife and I watch our High Def. shows there.
Pros
-Share 3 audio/video sources all over the house. I no longer need to have a separate DVD player at every TV.
-Hit pause and go to another room to continue where I had left off.
-No more arguing what to play on the big screen after dinner just because the kids' shows are on the family room DVR.
-3 new channels simultaneously. Kids can be watching cartoons on the green channel while I am catching up on last night's Tonight Show or viewing the latest rental from Netflix on the red and the wife is catching up on episodes of Grey's Anatomy on the blue. Everyone is happy!
-Good video quality as comparable to good NTSC OTA reception.
-Really simple to use. Even the kids can do it.
-Using Picture-in-Picture capability of my TV, I can monitor what the kids are watching without having to get out of chair/bed.
-I can easily play the same music all over the house when having a house party.
-Connect multiple analog TVs throughout the house to a single digital tuner.
Cons
-Quite an investment at full retail price. For me, the added convenience was more than worthwhile.
-Programming each remote for each TV took some effort. Luckily you only need to do it once.
-No High Definition support. Would be nice to be able to broadcast High Def contents.
-Installation requires some work. May want to hire an electrician if you are not handy
-Only 3 channels. 4 or five would be nicer.
-Description here at Amazon is not very detailed. Just go on the web and Google XSB08-01
-Extra remotes are kind of pricey. Only one remote is included with the Xtender.
I can finally find time to watch my shows . I have lots of DVDs but not enough time to watch them. That is, not enough time to sit at one location to watch all of them. I can rip the shows onto my IPod Touch and take them with me wherever I go. This works well when I'm traveling but not ideal when I'm at home. The 3.5 inch screen and tiny speaker of the IPod is just too difficult to enjoy if I am doing work at the home office, cooking dinner in the kitchen, folding laundry, doing work in the garage workshop or in the bedroom before I go to bed in the evening. So, I have been taking the DVDs with me to play back at different parts of the house. The inconvenient part is I need to remember to bring the DVDs with me as I move around the house but also to find the spot on the show where I had left off when I pop the DVD into another player.
I came across the BOCS Xtender while surfing on the web. The interesting thing that caught my attention was I don't need to run new wires all over the house nor have to mess with setting up a wireless video distribution network. The ability of the Xtender to use the existing antenna cable network already inside my walls and the ability to use each TV's built-in tuner without requiring an additional set-top decoder box for each TV location sounded really promising.
The Xtender arrived about 2 weeks ago. Installation initially appeared challenging but the quick-start guide made the process manageable. I had some problems initially in locating the central distribution of the antenna cable network but a call into the support number helped me locate it. I was glad the rep on the phone was very knowledgeable, courteous and spoke English that I can understand easily!
The unit retails for $500 but I got mine for significantly less searching around the web. Housing for the unit is a sturdy cast metal enclosure about the size of a hardcover novel. One way to describe how the unit works is to think of it as having 3 miniaturized TV broadcast stations. Each one of these broadcast stations will take any composite audio/video signals (typically these are the yellow for video and red/white for audio connectors located in the back of DVD players, DVR, VCR, camcorder, etc.) and broadcast these contents all over the in-house antenna cable network without interfering with the normal cable TV or over-the-air TV receptions. Quality of the video signal is quite good and is comparable to other over-the-air channels coming from my rooftop antenna.
The Xtender broadcast is based on the NTSC analog standard instead of the ATSC digital standard. This actually worked towards my favor since I still have a few older TVs with only analog tuners. The one in the kitchen is the type that mounts underneath the kitchen cabinet with a flip down screen. There is really no room in the kitchen counter to add a digital tuner box. I hooked up my Channel Master CM-7000 digital tuner to the blue channel of the Xtender and now I have access to digital channels with my all of my older TVs. Which means I don't need to get a separate digital tuner for each TV!
Each of the mini broadcast stations are color coded. For example, you can hook up your DVD player to the red channel with the supplied set of red A/V cables. If you are in front of your bedroom TV, pressing the red channel button on the remote will automatically tune your bedroom TV to the channel assigned for the DVD player and simultaneously send an RF signal to the Xtender in the other room telling it that subsequent button pushes such as play, stop, ff, rew, etc. will access the DVD player connected to the red channel. Same thing applies for the green and blue channel so the remote can control three additional devices besides your TV. The unit is really easy to use and not much different from using a standard TV remote. With the Xtender, you are getting 3 additional TV channels (red is channel 14, blue is 96 and green is 98)with whatever audio and video contents you wish to put on them as long as the sources comply to the composite a/v standard.
Everyone in the family including the kids have been delighted with the Xtender. I am using a single-disc DVD player hooked up to the red channel but I am seriously considering getting a 300 discs player and load up a good part of my DVD library in order to have instant access to any one of the 300 DVDs in the player anywhere there's a TV in the house. We no longer need to argue about what to play on the big screen TV in the family room. The kids can go to another room and access the cartoons recorded on the family room DVR while my wife and I watch our High Def. shows there.
Pros
-Share 3 audio/video sources all over the house. I no longer need to have a separate DVD player at every TV.
-Hit pause and go to another room to continue where I had left off.
-No more arguing what to play on the big screen after dinner just because the kids' shows are on the family room DVR.
-3 new channels simultaneously. Kids can be watching cartoons on the green channel while I am catching up on last night's Tonight Show or viewing the latest rental from Netflix on the red and the wife is catching up on episodes of Grey's Anatomy on the blue. Everyone is happy!
-Good video quality as comparable to good NTSC OTA reception.
-Really simple to use. Even the kids can do it.
-Using Picture-in-Picture capability of my TV, I can monitor what the kids are watching without having to get out of chair/bed.
-I can easily play the same music all over the house when having a house party.
-Connect multiple analog TVs throughout the house to a single digital tuner.
Cons
-Quite an investment at full retail price. For me, the added convenience was more than worthwhile.
-Programming each remote for each TV took some effort. Luckily you only need to do it once.
-No High Definition support. Would be nice to be able to broadcast High Def contents.
-Installation requires some work. May want to hire an electrician if you are not handy
-Only 3 channels. 4 or five would be nicer.
-Description here at Amazon is not very detailed. Just go on the web and Google XSB08-01
-Extra remotes are kind of pricey. Only one remote is included with the Xtender.
BOCS Xtender Whole-Home Entertainment System Reviews
Worked for us & great picture quality . We recently installed the Xtender and just wanted to share a quick note about how much we look forward to using the system! We're just about finished with a grueling home remodeling project, so we haven't had a chance to really get everything we can out of the device yet. That said, after having run the system through its paces and looking at a number of different options to get our cable, DVR and DVD content throughout the house, we're confident this system will provide us with both better picture quality and a significant cost savings relative to its competitors.
Our main system is a very modest setup, consisting of a Sony 60" LCD projection TV with an HD cable box and DVD player as source components. But now that we have the remodel out of the way, we plan on upgrading our cable service to include DVR capabilities, and with good quality LCD TVs getting less expensive every day, we're really excited about having whole-home TV without breaking the bank.
One of the features that really attracted us to the Xtender was its ability to integrate into our existing coaxial cable wiring. As part of the remodel, we had new coaxial wiring routed throughout most of the house, but the upfront costs and high monthly fees associated with having to place a cable box and DVR at every TV was a real deal breaker for us. Renting cable and DVR for three bedrooms, the kitchen and an office would have cost at least $600 a year in fees, not to mention at least $100 in equipment deposits, whereas the Xtender allowed us to save over $300 in the first year alone. Also, we were looking to wall mount the TVs without unsightly cable runs and clunky boxes in every room, and the Xtender gets every TV access to the components in the main living room setup using just the regular coaxial wiring.
Although I was initially attracted to the Xtender based on the cost savings, I have to say that I really was genuinely amazed at the picture quality. Compared to having a cable box hooked up to each TV, I was definitely expecting to see a discernable difference in picture quality. And while I wouldn't consider myself to be a videophile by any means, I'm really not sure I could even tell any difference between the different setups.
Worked for us & great picture quality . We recently installed the Xtender and just wanted to share a quick note about how much we look forward to using the system! We're just about finished with a grueling home remodeling project, so we haven't had a chance to really get everything we can out of the device yet. That said, after having run the system through its paces and looking at a number of different options to get our cable, DVR and DVD content throughout the house, we're confident this system will provide us with both better picture quality and a significant cost savings relative to its competitors.
Our main system is a very modest setup, consisting of a Sony 60" LCD projection TV with an HD cable box and DVD player as source components. But now that we have the remodel out of the way, we plan on upgrading our cable service to include DVR capabilities, and with good quality LCD TVs getting less expensive every day, we're really excited about having whole-home TV without breaking the bank.
One of the features that really attracted us to the Xtender was its ability to integrate into our existing coaxial cable wiring. As part of the remodel, we had new coaxial wiring routed throughout most of the house, but the upfront costs and high monthly fees associated with having to place a cable box and DVR at every TV was a real deal breaker for us. Renting cable and DVR for three bedrooms, the kitchen and an office would have cost at least $600 a year in fees, not to mention at least $100 in equipment deposits, whereas the Xtender allowed us to save over $300 in the first year alone. Also, we were looking to wall mount the TVs without unsightly cable runs and clunky boxes in every room, and the Xtender gets every TV access to the components in the main living room setup using just the regular coaxial wiring.
Although I was initially attracted to the Xtender based on the cost savings, I have to say that I really was genuinely amazed at the picture quality. Compared to having a cable box hooked up to each TV, I was definitely expecting to see a discernable difference in picture quality. And while I wouldn't consider myself to be a videophile by any means, I'm really not sure I could even tell any difference between the different setups.
BOCS Xtender Whole-Home Entertainment System Opinions
This product changed my home . This is a spectacular product - I actually put two in my home - I have two TiVos, a Windows Media Center, and a security system. Now I can see and control all those items from every TV in my home.
And most importantly - I'm saving over $50 a month by getting rid of most of my cable set top boxes. I have 7 TVs and now I don't need a cable box under each one.
Full review on AVS
[...]
This product changed my home . This is a spectacular product - I actually put two in my home - I have two TiVos, a Windows Media Center, and a security system. Now I can see and control all those items from every TV in my home.
And most importantly - I'm saving over $50 a month by getting rid of most of my cable set top boxes. I have 7 TVs and now I don't need a cable box under each one.
Full review on AVS
[...]
Love mine but wondering about the future of the product. . Mine is still working awesome and I have had it since the release! I am concerned about the company and the future of the product. Maybe the product hasn't taken off, but I really don't see an "alternative" out there. Things like the Slingbox, Boxee, Media PC's are all great. Combine them with and Xtender and get them on all your TV's and they melt your face with awesome. Their website hasn't really been updated since 2009 and they have been talking about an HD version since the release, but nothing has changed. It appears to still be available and as of writing this it looks like they are offering a half price discount for Christmas.I love mine and if it dies I will be trying to buy another one.
AMAZING PRODUCT! . I have had this product for over a year now, I couldn't imagine my house without it! I have the digital cable box from Comcast on the red channel to get on demand choices anywhere in the house without having to rent 7 set top boxes. On the green channel I have my TiVo premier, now I have access to that on every TV! The blue channel I have my Blu-ray player, so I get pretty close to blu-ray quality on every TV in the house! It also solves the problem that when Comcast went all digital you had to have a converter box on every TV to get basic channels, now however all my wall mounted TVs are still box free!
Feature BOCS Xtender Whole-Home Entertainment System
- 3 Composite inputs 900Mhz wireless remote controls
Simple installation with Cable TV system - IR repeater system built in
Learning universal remotes - 7 functions
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Product Details
EAN : 0793573559005UPC : 793573559005
MPN : XSB08-01
Brand : BOCS
Binding : Electronics
Department : Closeouts
Manufacturer : BOCS
Publisher : BOCS
SKU : 4169514
Studio : BOCS
Where To Buy
You can buy BOCS Xtender Whole-Home Entertainment System on Amazon . Click here to Read More
